6 in 6: England

      Cities Visited (this time):

Harpenden

West Sussex

Brighton

England quickly became probably my favorite country.  Though If I truly mean that, I should probably add some 'u's in my words and say again, England quickly became probably my favourite country.  I could write unending posts about all the stories I have from the times that I've lived in England over the last three and a half years.  I was there for several months during my own DTS, then lived there for another 9 months, and have made periodic visits over the last 2 years which have all been lovely.  

I think it's obvious to anyone who ever has any conversation with me about England or sees any of the pictures I post but I love public footpaths.  And England is literally covered with them.  On almost any street you go on, there will be signs on the side pointing in the direction of a public footpath.

One such day, I was in a lovely place called Cuckfield in West Sussex, in the south of England and I decided to go for a walk.  (Again, something I tend to do often).  I had been on this walk previously with my good friend and I wanted to venture there again but maybe take a few different turns.

 It's always the best when you come to a sign which points to a footpath in all 4 directions.

So I wandered through mud which came up to the tops of my wellies, a bit too close for comfort at times, and made it to the first of many fields I would have to walk through.  

There are times when you are walking on a clear path and then others when you are quite literally just walking through someone's property.  True story.

So I continued on the familiar route when I came to another crossroads and decided to turn right instead of left this time.  I just kept walking, and walking, and walking, finding signs along the way directing me in different directions.

I like dance parties.  When an opportunity presents itself where I am in the middle of nowhere, with no one else in sight (hopefully) and music in my ears, I like to pause and have a mini-dance party by myself then carry on.  So that happened and it was great.

Like I said before, there are times on these footpaths when you have to walk through someone's property.  Sometimes right through the middle of their farm, right in front of their house.  But you just have to hope that you find another sign pointing to a footpath and risk a potential awkward situation.  So that happened.  I hesitated quite a bit, walking back and forth deciding whether or not I wanted to risk feeling awkward.  But I pushed through and walked through a farm and happily found a sign which I walked briskly to and climbed the fence to continue on.

What I didn't realize as I was climbing the fence was that I was now entering a field full of sheep, both young and old.  I paused for a moment but realized there was no turning back now.  So I calmly walked down the hill, trying to avoid scaring them and/or getting chased by one.  Sheep are slightly creepy when you walk next to them as they just stare at you and you have no idea what they're thinking or if they are going to run from you or at you. 

On I walked and on I laughed at how utterly ridiculous this situation was, wondering what the heck I had gotten myself into.  But off in the distance, at the bottom of the hill, was another sign.  So I knew all would be well.

However, this sign led to yet another field and now I was very lost and my impeccable sense of direction had left me for the moment.  But luckily, it led me right back to a path I knew and I was able to find my way back.

That's just one footpath story.  I have many.  Some that have led through the woods full of beautiful bluebells, the smallest and most English towns, a lovely nursery full of beautiful flowers, tall grass covered in so much dew which makes your shoes and jeans completely soaked, getting rained on, walking by resting horses just staring at you, beautiful sunsets, open fields, wild garlic and so much more.  Many hours of my life have been spent walking around this wonderful country and I am so very happy with that fact.  

So for those that live in England, put on some wellies, grab some water and find a footpath. 

You won't be disappointed.

6 In 6: Gozo

So begins some stories.

I'm starting with the most recent, working backwards.

This particular event happened 2 days ago.

At this moment in time, I am on the small island of Gozo just off the coast of Malta.  It's a nice place.  Nice and hot.  And humid.  But still nice.

One morning, I woke up, had some delicious granola for breakfast and decided to go on a walk to explore.  I tend to do that often and it's something I rather enjoy.

Gozo has hills.  A lot of them.  And roads that are no where near wide enough or even paved enough to be a proper road but they are indeed roads which people drive on like crazy.  The walk began and myself and a friend whom I'm staying with started our walk with going up a very large hill.  But to my surprise, we were at the top and it stayed relatively flat for a quite a while with the occasional rise and fall of a road just following the rocky surface.  At one point, we parted ways and I continued on my journey.

I found a 'bike path' which started to go down the hill.  I was at a point of needing to make a decision as to whether or not to go down said hill due to the fact that I would eventually have to walk back up.  (All the while, the sun beating down on me).  But I just kept walking down and down and down and finally just decided to go all the way down to the water.

When I got there, I'm glad I did because I waded in the refreshing water, climbing along the rocks for a while.  After enjoying myself immensely there, it was time to start heading back.  But I didn't want to go back the way I came.  I prefer to do very large loops when I go walking.  There's more fun and adventure that way.

I found a path that went along the rocks and such, as there are many of those around here, predicting that it would go all around and lead me back to a 'beach' (in quotes due to one's definition of beach) where I knew the way back to the house I'm living in.

Prediction was incorrect.

The path kind of ended at this very large quarry where they were tearing up the earth and turning it into very large stones and gravel.  Not the safest place to be on foot.  I walked up a hill, hoping it would lead me to another main road.

It didn't.

There are not very many main roads here.

Again, the road I was on just kind of ended.  As I was standing up there wondering what to do next, a very large front loader tractor came driving up the hill towards me.  Awesome.  The man driving the tractor asked me something in Maltese that I didn't understand to which I answered - Do you speak English?  I am lost.

Obviously not my own picture but this was

the size of the tractor.

Luckily, pretty much everyone here speaks some English so I told him where I needed to go.  He then led me up the steps of his tractor and he was going to give me a ride to the other side of the quarry to a road that would lead me to another road.  So I climbed up and stood on a small platform just outside the door of his air conditioned area.

His name was Simon.

Nice guy.

So he took me to another road and told me just to follow it.  I thanked him and went on my way.

Yet again - the road just ended and there were no other pathways in sight.  Awesome.  Then with my excellent sense of direction, I knew which way I had to go - up and to the left.  So I walked through bushes and thorns and weeds for a good half an hour, all the while asking myself,

Where is the flipping road?

I finally found a 'path' of sorts and just stayed on it, not caring where it would lead because I was tired of scraping up my legs and walking through bushes.  And to my amazement - A ROAD!  An actual road.  I took a guess and went right and that was a very good guess as it led me back to where I needed to go and I arrived safe and sound.

Then in the afternoon, we went swimming in a cove just a short drive and walk away from the house.

An all around good day.

6 Countries in 6 Months: Intro

As I sat on my slightly delayed bright orange colored EasyJet plane on route from England to Malta, I had a funny realization that I couldn't help but be slightly amazed by and had to laugh at the ridiculousness of the circumstances.

In the last 6 months, I have been to 6 different countries. 

Malta

Greece

Cyprus

Israel

Turkey

England

That's quite impressive.  And my means of traveling to said countries each has their own crazy story.

Or 2.

Or 4.

I could go even further back and and say that in the last year, I have been to 10 countries, adding to that list:

United States

France

Spain

Gibraltar

But we'll leave it at 6 in 6 for the sake of a cool title.

I also realized that I haven't really shared too many stories from each of those places.

So that's what I want to do.

I want to share stories.

A New Project.

There was a day when a man asked me about all the places in this world that I've been.

As I began listing them off, starting from the most recent and working backwards, his eyes got a bit wider and finally said,

"I think you need to get out more."

I laughed.

I've been to a lot of places.

I want to remember these places and what has been written on the pages that make up my life.

Here's to remembering.